E-Mobility

The first factory for sodium-ion batteries has started production with an initial 1 GWh capacity that is scheduled to increase from 3 GWh to 5 GWh in 2023. The price of lithium has shot up seven times in the past two years, making batteries with more affordable raw materials a viable alternative.

Winora has revealed the Yucatan X12 Pro trekking e-bike. The bicycle has a 750 Wh InTube battery and 250 W Yamaha motor, delivering up to 85 Nm of torque. Fat Schwalbe tires and a RockShox fork provide a comfortable ride, and a built-in rear rack helps you to transport luggage.

An Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign is now live for the BUXUS Eva, a motorcycle-style e-bike. The bicycle has a top speed of 30 mph (~48 kph) and provides pedal assistance for up to 64 miles (~103 km) on a single charge. Plus, you can use an eSIM to enable features like keyless entry.

Instead of waiting for the Inflation Reduction Act's new EV purchase subsidies to kick in, Tesla is offering those on the sidelines a US$3,750 'credit' towards a December delivery of a Model 3 or Model Y. Granted, Tesla resorted to hidden incentives before a direct price cut in China, but in the US that may not be the case.

Future owners of Tesla's Cybertruck electric pickup will feel like drivers of its Semi that has a Megacharger system on board allowing Megawatt-class charging input. The Cybertruck will be able to top up quickly at Tesla's new V4 Superchargers with liquid-cooled cables that support 1000V charging as they become available in 2023.

The final Cybertruck version will actually be smaller than what's been shown so far in terms of prototypes, according to Tesla's head of design Franz von Holzhausen, but apparently not by much. He clarified in an interview that the utilitarian shape of the Cybertruck was borne out of the choice of steel as the body material.

LG has a chance to wiggle into the Apple Car supply chain next year as it is pivoting to the production of EV charging stations, cables, and connectors. LG has been retooling its former phone factory for the task, while it is already the world's second largest EV battery maker as it supplies cells to Tesla and many others.

Tesla keeps expanding the availability of the North American Charging Standard that it recently created by open-sourcing its proprietary EV charging system. Both the US$400 Tesla Wall Connector and the more universal US$550 J1772 Wall Connector are now available at Best Buy for the first time.

In a double whammy of concerning news about future demand for Tesla vehicles, both their market share and their owners' brand loyalty have started to go down. The share of Tesla owners who expressed satisfaction with their car and will order from the brand again, for instance, went below the industry average for the first time.

The launch of the Tesla Semi somehow coincides with the passing of the new Inflation Reduction Act that includes up to US$40,000 subsidy for commercial electric trucks. The first batch of 15 trucks that is going to Pepsi is part of a US$30 million zero-emission project for its Modesto, California factory, half of which was fronted by the Golden State's taxpayers.

The sleek electric car from the Michigan-based manufacturer is supposed to compete against the extremely successful Tesla Model Y and Model 3, but it has now lost the recommendation of the influential US publication Consumer Reports due to its allegedly lacking reliability.

The Orbea Wild 2023 enduro electric bicycle has been revealed. The various bike models come with either a Bosch CX or Bosch CX-R motor and 625 Wh or 750 Wh batteries. Other customizable elements of the e-bike, which comes with a full suspension system, include the tires and display.

Kellys has unveiled two new e-bike series, the Tygon and Tayen. All models come with a 90 Nm motor and a 725 Wh battery. You can view your speed or step-by-step navigation using a Bluetooth colour display. Plus, you can use the display to turn on your lights or switch between assistance modes.

Dubbed Project Highland, the Model 3 production simplicity push by Elon Musk would cast away many unneeded parts or functions, as well as introduce a new look and redesigned interior. Tesla may model the 2024 revamp of its bestselling sedan after what it did for the Model S, hopefully without the yoke steering.

After suing a driver who claimed Tesla brake failure was behind his multi-vehicle accident and winning, now Tesla can again feel somewhat vindicated as an MG6 owner with a sticker mocking Tesla's brake troubles myth in China was faulted for causing an accident with a Model 3. The funniest part is that the Tesla driver also had a similar sticker sense of humor.

With much lower rolling resistance than its model for gas-powered cars, the Vredestein Quatrac Pro EV is the first all-season tire designed to meet the higher torque and weight specifications of electric vehicles. The dedicated EV tire sports a 'carefully optimized blend of polymers,' lower weight, and grooves redesigned for higher cornering loads.

While Pepsi is setting up its Megacharger station to accept its first Tesla Semi batch on December 1, Coca-Cola is already doing deliveries in battery-powered trucks as of today. Renault Trucks previously mocked Elon Musk about the Semi's release promises and now beat Tesla to the long-haul EV game by a week.

Abarth has gone full electric with the latest version of its classic 500e. Nevertheless, the Fiat-owned brand asserts that the new battery-powered 2-door car beats its nearest gas-powered counterpart in certain areas of performance and acceleration. The new 500e is also rated for fast charging, advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) features and a "Scorpionissima" theme to its design.

Self-driving Volkswagens will become a usual sighting in 2030, according to the carmaker's CEO, as VW is investing a lot in the driving autonomy technology right now. The electric car with all its cameras, sensors and computers will have become the 'biggest data collection device' there is by then.

Weeks or days away from the most significant Tesla autonomous driving software update ever - FSD Beta V11 - Elon Musk made the current version available to anyone in the US and Canada who has paid for it. No pesky Safety Score shenanigans, but those on the 2022.40 update will have to wait for V11 to hit their branch.

Tesla is now looking at more than US$100 billion of potential revenue from its current Cybertruck preorder numbers. Those just surpassed the 1.5 million mark, and Tesla will be delivering its electric pickup with an exoskeleton made of the space-grade cold-rolled steel material also used in SpaceX's Starship exterior.

Tesla said that its electric pickup truck's release has been postponed for 2023, most likely for next summer, and its chief competitor BYD may be prepping an answer to the Cybertruck to be launched around that time, too. BYD's pickup has already been spotted testing in camouflaged mode.

Tesla may be readying another method to effectively cut the Model 3 and Model Y prices in its most productive vehicle market as it currently faces the biggest gap between manufacturing capacity and actual orders in China. While Tesla EV demand is tapering off there, competition is increasing, and subsidies expire by year's end.

Nireeka is currently crowdfunding for its Revenant e-bike on Indiegogo. The bicycle comes with a 250 W motor as standard, which you can upgrade to a 1,000 W model for a 35 mph (~56 kph) top speed and up to 85 Nm of torque. Plus, the bike has built-in ABS, fat tires and a full suspension system.

Tesla has reportedly placed a large order with the Taiwanese chip foundry TSMC for next-gen 4nm/5nm processors that will help bring its Full Self-Driving Beta system to the next level of autonomy. Tesla is the first electric vehicle client of TSMC and immediately went into its top 10 customer list.

The creator of Sony's Aibo robot dog and the PlayStation 3 console will aim to set the Honda-Sony EV joint venture apart by providing support for the PlayStation 5 content platform in its electric vehicles that should hit the US market in 2024. The move is largely targeting Tesla which 'is not providing any content services...'

The Tesla charging port and cable connector solution, collectively called the North American Charging Standard, has been dissected for visual comparison with the Common Charging Standard plug that other EVs use. The NACS system proved lighter, more compact, and, overall, the more elegant solution without skimping on specifications.

Those Model Y buyers who queue for an Austin-made unit with the 'revolutionary' 4680 battery cell may be in for a disappointment. A teardown and analysis of one such cell returned lower energy density than that of the Model Y with 2170 battery. Still, Tesla benefits from the lower per-pack price.

Shortly after EV market leader Tesla has cut the prices of some of its electric cars in China, a well-known German competitors has now followed suit by announcing some fairly dramatic price drops on the Mercedes EQS and EQE, which are supposed to improve the rather sluggish sales figures of these luxurious electric sedans.

Despite that Tesla has climbed four places in an annual vehicle reliability ranking that has been helmed by Toyota and Lexus for a good while now, it is still occupying the 19th place among the top 20 most reliable car brands in the US. Consumer Reports notes that EVs are now 'the second least reliable category' of vehicles.

A utility company has run the numbers and warns that the US grid can't provide the charging power for all the upcoming electric trucks like the Tesla Semi that will be released on December 1. The electrification of a typical gas station would demand the amount needed for a sports stadium, while a regular truck stop would need the electricity of a small town.

Volkswagen now reports that it has delivered half a million ID.-series vehicles worldwide. The marque touts this figure as an important milestone for its future plans, now projected to result in the discontinuation of all non-electric models in 2033. It also now hints at a number of successors for the current ID. range to hit the road prior to that.

With the Inflation Reduction Act's new electric vehicle subsidy requirements looming, battery makers are increasingly looking into moving their production to the US. The latest case in point is LG, whose Columbus project in Tennessee would aim to supply its own US-based cell factories with raw cathode materials.

Giant Bicycles has revealed the Stormguard E+ SUV e-bike. The electric bicycle comes with a RideDash Evo display, which you can use to view your speed and heart rate, and even receive email and message notifications. The power pack can provide up to 200 km (~124 miles) of assistance range with an optional range extender battery.

Tesla will be helping the Chinese authorities get to the bottom of a sudden Model Y acceleration accident that left several people dead with the pedal being fully depressed at one point. A driver's relative claims sudden brakes failure as the investigators rule out substance abuse.

Android Auto's latest public beta version is the first one to reflect the new updates as promised by Google at 1/0 2022. They include potentially helpful tweaks such as Maps that can skew toward the driver as well as enhanced Assistant integration and improved scaling to various in-car displays. Notification and status-bar control may also be more intuitive and less distracting in this new UI.

In a surprise move, Tesla opened its proprietary charging port and connector schematics for all EV makers and charging networks to employ at will. The open-sourced design and specification documents call the heretofore custom connector the North American Charging Standard as Tesla argues it is 'half the size, twice as powerful' in comparison with CCS.

The Tesla Cybertruck might indeed have jumped over to the 'tooling' phase before production starts, as the company has posted job listings that look for Cybertruck Body Shop engineers. The manufacturing preparations also include the first Cybertruck mention appearing in the iOS app on the sly.

IBM is checking the box for the 2022 QPU scaling roadmap with the 433-qubit "Osprey" model. Next year, the company is set to triple the qubit count with a "Condor" model. The processing power of such QPUs is already being put to good use by companies like Bosch, which seeks to produce sustainable alternatives for low-supply metals and rare-earth elements needed for EV motors.

Electric vehicles have swooped to win some of the most prestigious categories in Europe's most desired automotive award, the Golden Steering Wheel of Germany's Auto Bild magazine. The Chinese NIO ET7 sedan got the best luxury car award, while the solar-powered EV Lightyear 0 won in the best 2022 innovation category.

The Diamant Mandara 160 Gen 3 e-bike has been unveiled. A product listing on the German Trek Bikes website describes a new electric bicycle with a 160 kg (~353 lbs) payload weighing 29.9 kg (~64.6 lbs). The bike comes with a 545 Wh or 725 Wh battery and a top speed of 25 kph (~16 mph).

The Desiknio X20 Pinion electric bike is now available to pre-order in Europe. The bicycle has a 250 W Mahle motor providing a top speed of 25 kph (~16 mph) and a 250 Wh battery for an assistance range of 100 km (~62 miles). Plus, you can control various settings, such as the assistance level, in a smartphone app thanks to a smart X20 Bluetooth controller.

Zoom call integration is coming to 'all new Tesla vehicles soon," teased the communication company's Product Manager. During the Zootopia 2022 conference promo video, the Tesla driver could be seen jumping on a Zoom call while the car is charging, and using the controversial interior camera for the broadcast.

In a move that reflects the overall price trend in the white-hot electric car market, the South Korean car manufacturer effectively raises the entry price of the successful Kia EV6 by a massive US$7,100 by not offering the 58-kWh base trim for the 2023 model year.

Qualcomm Technologies and Renault Group have announced that they will team up to deliver new platforms for next-gen electric vehicles from the latter. The resulting new "Software Defined Vehicle Platforms" will take over from the Snapdragon Digital Chassis, and may thus deliver new advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), "connected car" experiences and generally many more of a vehicle's controls than ever before.

Toyota made about US$1,200 per vehicle sold last quarter, and Tesla made eight times that, beating Toyota's net profit margin for the first time since it went public. Teslas cost about US$36,000 to make but sell for US$10,000 more on average, potentially beating the heretofore highest per-vehicle margins of Mercedes.

The DYU King 750 fat tire e-bike is now available in the EU. The bike has a 750 W motor providing a top assistance speed of 45 kph (~28 mph). You can travel for up to 90 km (~50 miles) on a single charge, and 26 x 4-in (~66 x 10 cm) fat tires help to provide a more comfortable ride.

The SAMEBIKE MIX10 can now be pre-ordered by customers in the US, Canada, the UK and the EU. The bicycle has a 350 W motor with five power levels to choose from and 62 miles (~100 km) assistance range. An integrated mount allows you to use your smartphone and the accompanying app on the go, with settings controls and navigation.

Tesla's Model 3 outran the flagship Chinese NIO ET7 sedan when it came to energy draw efficiency during the European Green NCAP testing. When the tests were in cold weather, though, the efficiency of all participating EVs dropped precipitously.

According to the first impressions of a couple of car reviewers, the all-electric BMW i7 sedan is an incredibly luxurious and comfortable EV with some high-tech features, but unfortunately, the car also comes with a corresponding price tag that makes it unattainable for the vast majority of buyers.